Laser strategy game board

ABSTRACT

A game may include a first game board having a plurality of shaped holes distributed in a regular pattern, a laser piece generating a laser beam, a laser target piece responsive to the laser beam, and mirror pieces each having a matching shape for insertion in the shaped holes of the first game board to reflect the laser beam along a path from the laser piece to the laser target piece. The mirror pieces may be inserted at a limited number of azimuth angles in the game board, such as multiples of 22.5°. The game board and mirror pieces may be marked with a series of lines aligned with the azimuth angles so that the direction of reflection of the laser beam can easily be determined by inspection.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the priority of the filing of provisionalapplication Ser. No. 60/807,336, filed Jul. 13, 2006.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention is related to board games and in particular to a newstrategy board game using laser light.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Traditional board games are well known and include various type ofboards and passive pieces which are moved around by the game players.

What is needed are improvements in the board game play and equipment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a top view of game board 10 including laser source game piece12, mirror game piece 14, blocking or tunnel game piece 16 and targetgame piece 18.

FIG. 2 is an isometric view of laser source game piece 12 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an isometric view of mirror game piece 14 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is an isometric view of blocking or tunnel game piece 16 of FIG.1.

FIG. 5 FIG. 4 is an isometric view of target game piece 18 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is an isometric view of game play piece or die 36.

FIG. 7 is an isometric view of game play piece or die 38.

FIG. 8 is an isometric view of another embodiment of the game board andpieces.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A game may include a first game board having a plurality of shaped holesdistributed in a regular pattern, at least one laser piece generating alaser beam, at least one laser target piece responsive to the laser beamto indicate game play, and a plurality of mirror pieces each having amatching shape for insertion in the shaped holes of the first gameboard, wherein the mirror pieces may be positioned to reflect the laserbeam along a path from the laser piece to the laser target piece.

The mirror pieces may be inserted at a limited number of azimuth anglesin the game board, such as multiples of 22.5°. The mirror pieces may bemarked with a series of lines aligned with the azimuth angles so thatthe direction of reflection of the laser beam can easily be determinedby inspection. The game board may be marked with a series of lines alongthe azimuth angles radiating out of each of the shaped holes so that thedirection of reflection of the laser beam can easily be determined byinspection. The laser and laser target pieces are mountable to the gameboard for alignment with the azimuthal angles, for example by insertionin the shaped holes, so that the laser beam path can easily bedetermined by inspection.

A second game board may be attachable to the first game board to extendthe pattern of shaped holes available for game play which may includemoving and rotating the mirror pieces. Blocking game pieces insertablein the shaped holes to block the laser beam may be provided.

DETAILED DISCLOSURE OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S)

Referring now to FIG. 1, game board 10 may have any shape and include aseries of spaced apart holes 24 at regular or irregular spacing of aparticular shape matching game pieces 12, 14, 16 and 18, for example, byhaving a hexagonal shape. Alternately, the game pieces may fit withinspaced holes 24 at a series of fixed rotational positions or may haveholes in their bottoms matching a post or protrusion from each spacedhole 24 location on game board 10. Each game piece may be located withrespect to each spaced hole 24, fixing both the location and therotational orientation of each game piece. At the beginning of play, thegame pieces may be set in predetermined locations.

As shown in FIGS. 1-7, game pieces 12, 14, 16 and 18 may be positionedin initial locations in 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the top row of game board 10,respectively. Additional mirror and block game pieces 14 and 16, as wellas laser and target game pieces 12 and 18, may also be positioned inother initial positions such as shown in the row below the top row. Aseparate target game piece 18, and/or laser game piece 12, may beprovided for each game player or each team. During game play, themovements of the game pieces may be limited to rotation and/or movementfrom one spaced hole location 24 to another, unless for example, blockedby the presence of another game piece in its path. In this way, gameplay includes a substantial strategy factor requiring that the gameplayers must move their pieces, and/or take advantage of other player'smovement of game pieces, in order to move their desired game pieces intoan appropriate position.

The goal of the game play may be to align laser beam 26, from laser gamepiece 12, with target 32 of target game piece 18. The direction of laserbeam 26 may be affected by the positions of mirrors 28, of mirrored gamepieces 14, which reflect or otherwise redirect laser beam 26. Laser beam26 may be blocked by properly positioned blocking pieces 16 (ornon-reflecting surfaces of other game pieces), or if properly aligned,pass through with tunnels or passageways 30 in blocking game pieces 16.

Game piece 12 may conveniently be a class 1 or class 2 laser lightsource powered by a battery contained therein. Laser game piece 12 mayinclude a switch for turning the laser beam on and off manually and/orby inserting game piece 12 in a spaced hole location 24 on game board12. As shown in FIG. 2, laser beam 26 may exit one of the faces of lasergame piece 12 or be mounted on an adjustable pivot to leave game piece12 at a predetermined angle.

Mirror game piece 14 may contain mirrors 28 on one or more faces of thegame piece. The sides of mirror game piece 14 without mirrors act toblock the laser beam. Blocking game piece 16 may be used block laserbeam 26 from any direction and/or may include tunnel 30 there through sothat if blocking game piece 16 is properly aligned with laser beam 26,the light is permitted to pass through the game piece. Target game piece18 may include photodetector 32, as a game target, which detects laserbeam 26 and may indicate laser beam 26 hitting the target by lights,buzzers or other enunciators 34.

The height above game board 10 of laser 26, mirror 28, tunnel 30 andtarget 34, after insertion of game pieces in the game board, arepreferably consistent even though the height of the various game piecesmay be different.

In one embodiment, the players move their pieces alternately, like in agame of chess. In other embodiments, each player's moves during gameplay may be controlled by one or more game play pieces, such as dies 36and 38, appropriate cards or other ways of determining for the playertaking a turn which game pieces may be moved and/or rotated andpreferably by how much. As an example, die 36 may be a cube having 6faces, each of which indicate which game piece may be moved or rotatedwhile die 38 may indicate the direction and/or magnitude of movement orrotation of the game piece indicated by die 36. The game play pieces mayalso indicate that the current player get a disadvantage, for example,by losing a turn or gets an advantage by for example getting an extraturn or being able to move or rotate a game piece more than is indicatedby the game play pieces.

Referring now to FIG. 8, in an alternate embodiment, game board 40 maybe octagonal and have a series of spaced holes 42 which are generallyround but have a series of notches around their periphery compatiblewith the outline or perimeter of a bottom portion of the various gamepieces, such as mirror game piece 44. This permits game piece 44 to beinserted in any spaced hole 42 at one of a series of azimuth angles,such as multiple of 22.5°. A series of alignment lines 48 may be markedon the bottom of mirror game piece 44 at fixed angles, such as by havingone line perpendicular to the face of the mirror on mirror piece 44 andseveral on either side of that line at, for example, 22.5°, 45° 67.5°.These lines 48 may be lined up with similar path lines 50 marked on thetop surface of game board 40 so that the line of sight of the laser beambefore and after reflection may easily be determined.

Game board 40 may include color coded beam generator and target piecessuch as black laser beam generator game piece 52, black target 54, whitelaser piece 56 and white target piece 58. These pieces may be mounted infixed positions on game board 40 or preferably have a bottom portionsimilar to mirror pieces 44 so that they may be inserted, and/or movedor rotated, in spaced holes 42 for game play. Mirror pieces 44 may beused by any player or preferably, they may be color coded so that eachplayer may use only mirror pieces of a specific color. The object of thegame play is for the players to try to align their mirror pieces 44 sothat the laser beam from that player's beam generator piece strikes thetarget piece for the other player or vice verse. For example, as shownin the figure, laser beam 60 from laser beam generator piece 56 strikesmirror 62 along mirror alignment line 48 at 67.5° on the right and isreflected along mirror alignment line 48 at 67.5° to the left to strikemirror piece 64. Laser beam 60 is then reflected from mirror pieces 66and 46 until it strikes black target piece 54 at which point the playerusing these white pieces has won the game. Many variations of this gameplay may be used.

It should be noted that several of the sides of game board 40 mayinclude slots 68 together with arrows indicating that connecting linksfrom other game boards may be added to increase the difficulty of gameplay. Alternately, other boards (and/or the equivalent of targets,lasers and mirror pieces) may be positioned in the vicinity of gameboard 40 to increase play difficulty but such other boards and piecesare preferably rigidly linked to game board 40 to prevent unintentionalmisalignments.

Game board 40 may itself be configured from multiple pieces, split forexample in to two pieces at hinge 70, for ease of storage and setup.Alternately, the subparts of game board 10 may be separated along line70 and an additional, perhaps rectangular piece, may be inserted toincrease game play difficulty.

Further, more than two players may play, for example by combining two ormore sets of game boards, or other supplemental game board sections, andgame pieces. In order to identify which mirror and other pieces belongto which player, colored clips may be provided which can be mounted forexample on grip 72 as shown on mirror piece 74 to identify the players.

1. A game comprising: a first game board having a plurality of shapedholes distributed in a regular pattern; and at least one laser piecegenerating a laser beam, at least one laser target piece responsive tothe laser beam to indicate game play, and a plurality of mirror pieceseach having a matching shape for insertion in the shaped holes of thefirst game board, wherein the mirror pieces may be positioned to reflectthe laser beam along a path from the laser piece to the laser targetpiece.
 2. The invention of claim 1 wherein the mirror pieces may beinserted at a limited number of azimuth angles in the game board.
 3. Theinvention of claim 2 wherein the azimuth angles are multiples of 22.5°.4. The invention of claim 2 wherein the mirror pieces are marked with aseries of lines aligned with the azimuth angles so that the direction ofreflection of the laser beam can easily be determined by inspection. 5.The invention of claim 4 wherein the game board is marked with a seriesof lines along the azimuth angles radiating out of each of the shapedholes so that the direction of reflection of the laser beam can easilybe determined by inspection.
 6. The invention of claim 5 wherein thelaser and laser target pieces are mountable to the game board so thatthe laser beam path can easily be determined by inspection.
 7. Theinvention of claim 6 wherein the laser and laser target pieces aremountable to the game board by insertion in the shaped holes.
 8. Theinvention of claim 1 further comprising: second game board attachable tothe first game board to extend the pattern of shaped holes available forgame play.
 9. The invention of claim 1 wherein game play includes movingand rotating the mirror pieces.
 10. The invention of claim 1 furthercomprising: blocking game pieces insertable in the shaped holes to blockthe laser beam.